The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume I (of 2), 1866-1868Livingstone, David
History
The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume I (of 2), 1866-1868
Livingstone, David
Africa, Central -- Description and travel
_12th October, 1868._--We came to the Kalongosi at the ford named
Mosolo: by pacing I found it to be 240 yards broad, and thigh deep at
the end of the dry season, it ran so strongly that it was with
difficulty I could keep my feet. Here 500 at least of Nsama's people
stood on the opposite shore to know what we wanted. Two fathoms of
calico were sent over, and then I and thirty guns went over to protect
the people in the ford: as we approached they retired. I went to them,
and told them that I had been to Nsama's, and he gave me a goat and
food, and we were good friends: some had seen me there, and they now
crowded to look till the Arabs thought it unsafe for me to be among
them: if I had come with bared skin they would have fled. All became
friendly: an elephant was killed, and we remained two days buying
food. We passed down between the ranges of hills on the east of Moero,
the path we followed when we first visited Casembe.
_20th and 21st October, 1868._--From the Luao I went over to the chief
village of Muabo, and begged him to show me the excavations in his
country: he declined, by saying that I came from a crowd of people,
and must go to Kabwabwata, and wait awhile there, meanwhile he would
think what he should do, whether to refuse or invite me to come. He
evidently does not wish me to see his strongholds. All his people
could go into them, though over ten thousand: they are all abundantly
supplied with water, and they form the storehouses for grain.
_22nd October, 1868._--We came to Kabwabwata, and I hope I may find a
way to other underground houses. It is probable that they are not the
workmanship of the ancestors of the present occupants, for they
ascribe their formation invariably to the Deity, Mulungu or Reza: if
their forefathers had made them, some tradition would have existed of
them.
_23rd October, 1868._--Syde bin Habib came over from Mpweto's; he
reports Lualaba and Lufira flowing into the Lake of Kinkonza.
Lungabale is paramount chief of Rua.
Mparahala horns measured three feet long and three inches in diameter
at the base: this is the yellow kualata of Makololo, bastard gemsbuck
of the Dutch.
_27th, 29th, and 30th October, 1868._--Salem bin Habib was killed by
the people in Rua: he had put up a tent and they attacked it in the
night, and stabbed him through it. Syde bin Habib waged a war of
vengeance all through Rua after this for the murder of his brother:
Sef's raid may have led the people to the murder.
_29th October, 1868._--In coming north in September and October, the
last months of the dry season, I crossed many burns flowing quite in
the manner of our brooks at home, after a great deal of rain; here,
however, the water was clear, and the banks not abraded in the least.
Some rivulets had a tinge of white in them, as if of felspar in
disintegrating granite; some nearly stagnant burns had as if milk and
water in them, and some red oxide of iron.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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